November 16, 2007

Sorry for the long break in the action here, but today was the last day of the fall term at Johnson & Wales and it's been a hectic few weeks. Amidst it all, I did manage to get up to King Arthur Flour, where we did a two day hands-on whole grain breads workshop. I'm pleased to say that the breads turned out beautifully and, of course, working at King Arthur is always fun. Susan Miller and the other folks at the Educational Center there took good care of me and I was even able to catch the tail end of the fall leaves. Vermont, especially around the Norwich/White River Junction area, is beautiful.

In addition to the upcoming classes in Texas, California, and Arizon (see an earlier post with those dates and locations), I am happy to announce some upcoming whole grain bread classes at the Viking Culinary Centers in Atlanta (Jan. 16th), Nashville, (Jan. 17th), and St. Louis (Jan. 19th). Please call those stores for more details. I've also booked two classes at the Western Reserve Culinary School outside of Cleveland, for June 23rd and 24th--sounds like a long time from now but I guarantee, it will be here before you know it. I'll post the full schedule again, as it keeps growing, in a few weeks. I hope to have some other new dates to add as well.

Also, check out today's (Nov. 16th) USA Today for a top ten list of artisan bakeries that they asked me to provide for National Bread Day (today!). The hardest part was deciding on just ten, and I hated to leave off so many worthy bakeries (they asked me to spread them around the country as best I could, so I asked if I could do a new top ten list in the future, maybe when National Bread Day comes around again). Give me a few days to get my grades turned in and to catch up on everything, and I'll recap the USA Today list here, as well as add some of the ones I had to leave off because they'd only allow for ten.

Also, keep an eye out for either the December or January Spirit Magazine (Southwest Airlines in- flight magazine) for a brief listing of my favorite pizzerias. I gave them about 8 but I think only three will make it into the magazine, with a link to their website for the others. I will list them all here, too, after the article hits.

I've heard from friends around the country that the wonderful story written about me by Kathleen Purvis, of the Charlotte Observer, has begun showing up in other newspapers. I think it's one of the very best pieces anyone's ever done on me, so thank you, Kathleen, and if any of you want to read it, try picking it up off the archives at www.charlotte.com It originally ran on October 24th.

Okay, enough for now. I'll try to get another posting up soon--I promise.